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A Pennsylvania county commissioner is challenging Gov. Josh Shapiro’s announcement of two measles-associated deaths, fueling a growing clash with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the state’s outbreak swells to 460 confirmed cases across 31 counties.
Joshua Parsons, one of three Lancaster County commissioners, accused Shapiro of being intentionally “deceptive” during a news conference earlier this week, when the Democratic governor pointed to two “measles-related deaths” in the county.
“Well, the governor, in the press conference, they said they were measles-associated deaths, but it was framed, and very much the underlying assertion to it, was that these were measles deaths,” Parsons told Fox News Digital.
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During a news conference Tuesday alongside Dr. Debra Bogen at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Hospital, Shapiro announced the deaths of two people who were unvaccinated for measles.
“Today, we see the consequences of a lack of immunizations in the first measles-associated deaths that our commonwealth has seen in 35 years,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro strongly urged Pennsylvanians to get vaccinated for measles during the news conference.
“I want to be clear: This illness and death from measles is completely preventable,” he said.
Parsons said Shapiro cast the deaths as being the result of measles.
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Parsons noted that national media outlets framed the deaths as being from measles. The New York Times, in a story Tuesday still posted to its website, added the headline, “Two Unvaccinated People Died From Measles in Pennsylvania, Officials Say.”
MEASLES DEATHS MAY HAVE BEEN ‘FABRICATED,’ RFK JR CLAIMS AFTER CORONER RAISES QUESTIONS
However, according to conversations he had with the Lancaster County Coroner, Parsons claimed nobody in the county has died from measles this year.
“The coroner reported that they don’t have … they had zero measles deaths or measles-associated deaths reported. And in Pennsylvania, if you have someone who dies of a contagious disease, that does have to be reported to the county coroner,” Parsons told Fox News Digital.
MEASLES DEATHS MAY HAVE BEEN ‘FABRICATED,’ RFK JR CLAIMS AFTER CORONER RAISES QUESTIONS
The coroner, Dr. Stephen Diamantoni, has also publicly stated in interviews with local media that he had not been contacted by either Shapiro or the Pennsylvania Department of Health and was surprised to learn of the news conference.
“The coroner had one case where there was an infant who died in a home birth, and he’s talked about this publicly. And that infant died with measles but not of measles. At the time of the press conference, the state did not indicate who these two cases were or anything about them. Subsequently, they came out and said that this infant is one of the ones they’re counting,” Parsons told Fox News Digital.
MEASLES DEATHS MAY HAVE BEEN ‘FABRICATED,’ RFK JR CLAIMS AFTER CORONER RAISES QUESTIONS
The Pennsylvania Department of Health, in a statement to Fox News Digital, asserted that it consistently referred to the cases as “measles-associated.”
“PA DOH did not describe the cause of death of either individual. As PA DOH has repeatedly made clear since Tuesday, the department consistently used the term ‘measles-associated’ in relation to these two deaths. That term means laboratory or epidemiologic evidence of measles is present — in both cases there was a positive measles test — but the disease may not be assessed by the medical certifier or coroner to be the immediate cause of death,” the statement said.
MEASLES DEATHS MAY HAVE BEEN ‘FABRICATED,’ RFK JR CLAIMS AFTER CORONER RAISES QUESTIONS
The coroner did acknowledge the presence of measles in the infant who died but said neither he nor the pathologist who examined the infant believed measles to be the cause of death.
The coroner, according to Parsons, said the infant died of a lacerated spleen. He also said he has received no information about the second person mentioned by Shapiro and the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
MEASLES DEATHS MAY HAVE BEEN ‘FABRICATED,’ RFK JR CLAIMS AFTER CORONER RAISES QUESTIONS
Parsons said that suggested the deaths were not from measles.
“The Health Department put out a statement in reply to some of these questions. And I think it just raised more questions, but one line they had in there was that not all deaths in Pennsylvania have to be reported to the county coroner, and that’s true. If you have, for example, an elderly person who dies of natural causes, that does not have to be investigated or reported to the coroner,” Parsons said.
“But if you have someone who dies of an infectious disease, that does have to be reported. So, if there is a second death in Lancaster County, that should have been reported,” Parsons said. “Now, there’s an unlikely scenario that someone contracted measles here and then died outside the county, and that would be reported to another county coroner. And if that’s the case, which I think is highly unlikely, if it is the case, they should state that.”
The Pennsylvania Department of Health, in response to Fox News Digital asking the department why it did not contact the coroner, said, “Pennsylvania Statutes Title 16 (Pennsylvania Statutes Title 16 P.S. Counties § 4236 | FindLaw) outlines when a coroner would be called in to investigate a death. While DOH collaborates with county coroners in various ways, including death reporting, DOH does not regulate or oversee coroner operations, nor are coroners involved in most deaths within their county. “
Kennedy was also critical of Shapiro’s comments.
“Governor Shapiro’s unseemly rush to Lancaster County to convene a national press conference and his giddy delight in announcing two measles deaths was a morose commentary on the contemporary political dialogue,” Kennedy wrote in a post on X Wednesday.
“The performance was a replay of the Democrats’ COVID playbook: fearmongering, misinformation, finger-pointing, and the weaponization of infectious disease fears for political gain.
“The announcement appears to have been premature, and the deaths may even have been altogether fabricated by one of the Governor’s hopeful staffers. The Lancaster County Coroner says that it has no record of any measles deaths. State law requires that all measles deaths be reported to the coroner,” Kennedy added.
Kennedy and Shapiro, according to The Washington Post, had a heated phone call just minutes before Shapiro’s announcement Tuesday. During the call, Shapiro reportedly told Kennedy he did not want the federal government’s help with the ongoing measles outbreak.
As of Friday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health said 460 measles cases have been confirmed across 31 counties in the state so far in 2026. It marks the nation’s largest measles outbreak since 1991, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The majority of infected persons in the state are not vaccinated, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Parsons noted that much of the outbreak is relegated to religious communities whose members choose not to get vaccinated.
“There’s certainly measles here,” Parsons told Fox News Digital. “There are in other Pennsylvania counties as well. And a lot of the focus has been on the plain population, Amish and Mennonites. Many of them choose not to get vaccinated.
“And, by and large, they’re going about their life and they’re living their life and just continue on. So, we certainly have resources available for people if they wanna get vaccinated, but I believe strongly that’s each individual’s choice.”
In response to a request for comment, Shapiro’s office referred Fox News Digital to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Reached by Fox News Digital, a representative from the Times said the newspaper is “confident in the accuracy of our story.”
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Fox News Digital also contacted the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services for additional comment.
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